In the European Union mobile phone users send around 2.5 billion text messages every year by roaming. The problem is that the cost in EU is about 10 times more than domestic SMS sending costs. According to the European Regulators’ Group, roaming text messages in the EU between October 2007 and March 2008 were about 0.29 Euros per piece but can go high to as much as 0.80 Euros per text message sent.

EU wants to reduce costs for the roaming text messaging services as more and more shock bills are being received. The new measures may be proposed to the European Parliament and the Council in early autumn.

According to the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, the Commission will work closely together with the European Parliament and Council to create a way to resolve this problem. People should use roaming text messages without receiving a massive bill.

In the same time the Commission says it will also regulate the prices for accessing media files over mobile Internet services. Recently a huge bill was received by a Vodafone subscriber in the UK for downloading a small number of music tracks and a Prison Break episode. Prices regarding this issue will also be regulated to similar errors can be avoided in the future.

The roaming text message should cost no more than 0.11 euros to 0.15 euros per message sent, according to Daniel Pataki, Chairman of the ERG and Head of the Hungarian National Communications Authority.